Episode 182: Camilla, At Last (Spence)

In a blink of sensation, Spence felt Orris and Olida transport. The alarm of the spell was more shocking than he had expected. It wasn’t that his veins were on fire, or that his body was sent electrical impulses, it was that he had begun to hope they would be safe with him. He had begun to hope they understood who to trust.

He felt them transport, like a little tingle on his arm, and in a moment he had a travel pack in hand. Orlida, he thought, a message to Ach.

He dropped the pack and he was standing on dirt. There was a stone building in front of him, with Orris and Olida standing near the entryway. Beside them was the man from the cameras, the one they had called Landen.

“Let them go,” Spence ordered.

Landen turned, each arm around one of the kids. “They want to see their dad. Don’t you?”’

Olida’s eyes watered.

“Let them go,” he ordered again.

At a standoff, they waited for one or the other to make a move. Spence held his sword steady, ready for anything.

The air was dry and stale. Spence tried to judge what he could do that wouldn’t harm the kids, but Landen had positioned them so they would be difficult to avoid injuring. Spence studied the surrounding environment. There were other buildings much like the one Landen, Orris, and Olida were about to enter. The streets were empty.

Then, before he could move, the door the house opened to reveal a man that looked like Ach in build, with chestnut brown hair and a ring on either side of his lower lip.

He must be Tarragon.

Spence felt adrenaline coursing through his veins; if Tarragon was here Ionia was sure to be nearby.

“Good evening,” Tarragon greeted them. “Orris. Olida.”

Orris ran the few feet to Tarragon. “Daddy!” He ran into his arms and Tarragon held him close.

Olida stayed behind.

Landen let her go, and she seemed to want to cling to him or anything that wasn’t going near her dad. Spence could tell it wasn’t wishful thinking.

“Bye,” Landen said, and he was gone.

As he did, the front of the house filled with guards that had been contained within. Others, Spence could sense, were to his sides, just behind him so he couldn’t see them.

Tarragon squared his shoulders. “This is my son. She,” he nodded to Olida, “is my daughter. Come here Olida.”

Olida moved to Spence, her head shaking with each step, her eyes locked on Tarragon.

When she was close enough, Spence wrapped his arm around Olida’s shoulder and down to her hand. He hugged her, as best he could, and let a travel pack go in her hand. He crouched down to whisper, “Think of Ach, really hard. Think of him and drop it.”

“Okay,” Olida whispered back.

“I love you, Oli,” he promised. One kid almost safe, one kid to rescue, one Tarragon to apprehend without encountering Ionia.

The guards had found their positions. Some tried to move closer to Spence, and he held his sword ready and pushed back at any advances. They were waiting for something, and he didn’t know what. He kept his eyes focused on the environment, but he felt Olida vanish.

Orris’s eyes wided. “She left.” He buried his face in the creamy leg of Tarragon’s pants.

Tarragon kneeled before Orris, replicated Spence’s move from earlier.

Camilla was inside. He looked at the windows and through the door, while his ears heard the sweet poison Tarragon fed them. “Do you want to stay with me, Orris?”

Orris cried.

Ach appeared beside him, sword drawn. He was a blonde mirror of the man a few feet away.

Camilla came bursting out of the doors. “Spence!”

Tarragon’s arm lifted to block Camilla, who stopped before impact. She stared at him.

He was going to get her out of here too.

Tarragon drew his sword and moved toward Spence, one slow half step at a time. He pulled his sword back, then spun and thrust it into one of the guards.

Spence held his breath for a moment, and in the tension he let his body move against the guards to his left. Ach moved to their right.

The three formed a ring around Orris, and when he could Spence slipped him a pack.

“Okay I guess we’re killing people now,” Ach said.

Spence felt a gush of love surge him forward, for Ach and his never ending attempts to ease a situation.

“Keep their hands off of you,” Spence advised. The last thing he needed was one of them to be taken by transport.

The trio stood, back to back with Orris and Camilla hidden between them and managed to fight the guards off one by one. Where skill lacked, Spence noted this wasn’t a battle to test their combined strength it was a battle to buy time.

He pressed their circle toward the door, but the remaining guards defended it fiercely. Any step toward the house was met with bodies willing to become a blockage at the expense of their own life.

They fought, still, their swords clanging against the guards and Camilla whispering comforting words into Orris’s ears, until at last the final guard fell, his knees wobbling beneath him and his eyes begging for death.

Spence raised his sword, Tarragon and Ach beside him, and smacked the flat blade against the guard’s head. He fell, stunned, to the ground, where Spence was able to lower himself and complete his goal: removing his prisoner from consciousness.

Spence stood and looked at Ach, Tarragon, Camilla, and Orris.

Olida was safe, Orris would be safe, he had his sister back, he had Tarragon, and he had an additional prisoner.

“I need to get my son, Annatto,” Tarragon stated. He brushed past Spence and climbed the small mound of bodies, into the house.

“Where is he?” Ach asked. He followed Tarragon into the brick building, despite Spence’s heart racing harder as he watched. The house could be a trap.

“Upstairs,” Tarragon instructed. “Don’t leave his head behind.”

Spence’s stomach turned; he’d seen heads in the past two weeks, on out-of-realm training missions with Konrad. He’d seen bodies missing all sorts of pieces, but he hadn’t expected it today.

He looked down at his arm and watched the various cuts healing. Ach and Tarragon were incredible swordsmen. Spence, well he was trained. Swords wasn’t his talent, and knowing that made him stronger in a way.

“Two should carry him to support the growth between his neck and his head,” Tarragon added.

“We’ll clear the house and meet at home,” Spence said after them. “Take him to the one-way cell.”

The one-way cell was designed to allow transporting in but block all magic, including the ability to transport out, once you had arrived. It was the best place to deal with unexpected, potential enemy, types.

Ach nodded. “I’ll see you soon.”

Spence watched them disappear up a staircase, then turned to Camilla. Her arm was still wrapped around Orris, but she let him go once she saw Spence’s attention shift. Spence hugged both.

“You’re safe,” he commented toward Camilla.

“I knew you’d find me. Thank you!” She hugged him again.

“I need to check the house and I need to get you two home,” Spence listed. Before he could tell her which was going to happen first, which in this case was taking the two home incase someone transported back to get them, Konrad arrived with backup.

Konrad set his hand on Spence’s shoulder. “Well done.”

“Thanks. Ionia got away, but she was here,” he reported. He watched as two guards went to Camilla and Orris and offered their hands for transport. They went, and in a blink he went from concerned about them to focused on the house.

“We may be able to trace her,” Konrad commented, his hand running through his beard, his eyes scanning the building and the bodies.

“Ach is moving a body with Tarragon. They’re inside. Tarragon fought against them.”

“We saw,” Konrad stated. Spence wasn’t sure from where, but he didn’t ask.

“Ready to clear the house?” Konrad asked.

“Yeah,” Spence agreed. He sheathed his sword for the moment, but kept his hand on the blade. Using a sword inside, where he could tell the halls were narrow, would be too complicated. Punching a combatant from close range would be more effective, if it came to it.

“Keep an eye out for any personal items especially.” Konrad climbed the bodies as though they were stairs and descended them into the wood framed entryway.

“I will.” Spence tried not to count the seventeen bodies he had contributed to killing; he was unable to stop himself.

“Tell me what he said. I could see but I couldn’t hear.”

“He hates Ionia is all. His son has no head at the moment.”

They moved through the house, which seemed a bit modern for the area of the Lower Dell they were in, and collected various papers and used glasses and other little things Konrad deemed clues.

“Do you trust it? Or was it a move to plant him?”

“I think he turned against her, because of Camilla in part. When she came out, with Orris at his feet… plus he never told Orris to go inside. He kept him near, which implies he doesn’t trust her.” Spence hoped his deductions were correct. He was glad Konrad was making the ultimate (preliminary) decision about Tarragon. He would ask Konrad what convinced him to act the way he did later, during training.

“Alright. Do you want to find her with me or focus on Tarragon for the time?”

“Let’s get Ionia. Ach is taking Tarragon to a one-way room, they’ll be stuck.”

Konrad pulled supplies out of his bag and spread a map on a table. “We’ll find her and transport nearby. I’m not risking person-to-person transport. She may expect that.’

Spence looked at the map, the entire planet drawn before him and various spell bottles prepared and lined up. Konrad was expecting this, Spence realized. Not just expecting the possibility but near certain this would come up.

“I’m ready,” Spence said. Now wasn’t the time to ask questions. Instead, Spence drew his sword.

Konrad drew his too, held in his left hand. He offered his right to Spence, and he took it.

Konrad dumped the spell, with the addition of hair that Konrad must have suspected belonged to Ionia, and watched it as it all moved toward the upper left corner of the map, toward a kingdom known as Fjor Halsein. Ach’s sister Jasmine ruled there.

Konrad let out a small contemplative sound, like a hmm but shorter and almost too quiet to hear, then he transported them home.

<- Episode 181 | Episode 183 ->